Access networking¶

The top of the rack (ToR) switches provide connectivity to servers on physical and data-link levels. They must provide support for LACP and other technologies used on the server side, for example, 802.1q VLAN segmentation. Access layer switches are used in stacked pairs.

In MCP CPI reference architecture validation lab, the following 10 GbE switches were used as the top of the rack (ToR) for PXE, Management Public, Storage, and Tenant networks in MCP:

• Dell Force10 S4810P 48x 10 GbE ports, 4x 40 GbE ports

Use this a reference when planning the hardware bill of materials for your installation of MCP.

The following diagram illustrates how a server is connected to the switching fabric and how the fabric itself is configured.